Somehow I had never seen the connection between Henry Paulson and the fact that he made millions (billions?) off of the subprime mortgages that initiated the current state of economic distress. Here's a great piece that pointed out the connection.

Henry Paulson - Fraud or Gross Negligence
Below is an article from Bloomberg that appeared almost a year ago. It's sad. Very sad. Very sad that nobody stopped this man. It is sad that we gave a man responsible for much of the mess we are in, the power to wave his wand and exonerate himself and his friends . . . then to reward his friends and trash the taxpayers. It is even sadder that just a handful of politicians in Washington are speaking out. It seems like our politicians are prepard to hand the keys to the United States to a man that probably deserves to be in jail at this point. If he has not comitted fraud, he has demonstratd the most extreme form of grossly negligent conduct I have ever seen. And he's a liar.

Paulson's Focus on `Excesses' Shows Goldman Gorged
By Mark Pittman

Nov. 5, 2007 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says the U.S. is examining the subprime mortgage crisis to ensure that ``yesterday's excesses'' aren't repeated. He could be talking about himself and his former firm, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Paulson, 61, doesn't mention that Goldman still has on the market some $13 billion of almost $37 billion in bonds backed by subprime loans or second mortgages that it created while he was chief executive officer. Those bonds have an average delinquency rate of almost 22 percent, higher than the average of other subprime bonds from the period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Goldman, the most profitable investment bank, was one of 14 primary dealers of U.S. Treasuries who contributed to a three- year binge as $1 trillion of subprime mortgages were packaged and sold to investors. The value of Goldman's outstanding subprime bonds trails Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s $33 billion, out of $106.8 billion created during Paulson's years at Goldman, and Morgan Stanley's $28.8 billion, out of $82.5 billion.

``He should admit to having been involved in creating the problem that we have now,'' said Representative Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat, who introduced a bill Oct. 22 to make firms packaging subprime mortgages liable for bad loans in some circumstances.

The subprime crisis developed earlier this year when falling home prices triggered defaults by homeowners who wouldn't have normally qualified for a mortgage. Many were unable or unwilling to make adjustable-rate payments that were due to rise. Home foreclosures doubled in the third quarter from a year earlier to 635,159, RealtyTrac reported Nov. 1.